Fleet mum supports ‘Get The Picture’ mental health campaign

The question has been raised as campaigners try to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.

To tackle the issue, Time To Change has launched a new campaign called ‘Get The Picture’.

It is pushing news outlets to avoid using the typical head in the hands photo, dubbed as a ‘headclutcher’, when running mental health stories.

Fleet mum, Sophia Gill, is supporting the campaign.

She suffered from depression when she was 14 years old and it has taken her almost 15 years to recover.

Sophia said it is important we normalise mental health: “You always sort of imagine this person curled up in a corner, with their head in their heads, but the truth is mental health just looks normal.

“I think it’s really important to teach people that mental health is all around us.

“It’s not obvious, it can be hidden, but it doesn’t make it any less important.

“By normalising mental health issues, by having pictures in articles that are much easier to relate to, that’s the way we’re going to educate people to understand what it feels like as a sufferer.”

Sophia believes education is key to tackling mental health stigma: “You encounter people who view it as just someone who is feeling a bit sad or woken up on the wrong side of bed, all of the cliché terms.

“It’s sad because it is so much more than that.

“Teaching them what it is, what it feels like to suffer from a mental health problem, in that way you’re going to help them to understand it, and then you can move forward from that.”

Sophia has found writing has helped her recover.

She has written a book called ‘101 Distractions from Depression’ in support of mental health charity Sane.

The Chief Executive of Guildford mental health charity, Oakleaf Enterprise, tells us there are still big issues around mental health stigma and employment.

Clive Stone says his clients are often worried about what to include in a job application: “There’s a lot of uncertainty about what they should put.

“What is going to be acceptable.

“Are they going to be potentially discriminated against before they’ve even got their foot through the door?

“For employers, again there’s a lot of fear of the unknown and what is it going to be like employing that person.”

Clive believes employers should be more flexible in who they hire: “It’s not necessarily just the employer, it’s other employees as well, do we need to provide education for them to help them understand?

“I believe there is still a barrier and I think there’s a lot of good work being done, but it’s just going to take time.”

Time To Change now has a wide range of images available for the media to use alongside mental health stories.

They want editors to have a choice of realistic and relevant photos to bring reports about mental health to life.

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”